I would be very grateful for input here from forum members. I have been asked whether the following photos are of a "Shui Blanket/coverlet" or not? The textile was purchased in a market in Beijing - where so many minority (or otherwise) textiles turn up.

It was purchased by a Miao expert who feels that it is possible put together to give the impression of being an old textile - but is not. It has been fairly crudely stitched. There is a couching thread around the edges of the applique but this is not horsehair gimp. There is some appearance of some staining of the textiles (but this could be the result of dipping in tea!)

There are an assortment of fabrics in the applied work some of which could be from handspun/handwoven fabric scraps or reuse of old clothing. The border fabric is clearly a factory made imitation of wax resist.

Thanks for your suggestion. I couldn't think of any applique Bouyei textiles that I had seen but then I remembered visiting two Qing Miao villages in 2001 in Huishi and Luodian counties, Guizhou where the Miao have been very influenced by the Bouyei and I really felt, especially in the second, that I was in a Bouyei rather than Miao village. Both villages use applique and create it in squares. However, I am not sure that the couching is exactly the same as in the bedcover that I posted. I am going to post some photos showing old skirts, and old baby's bib and current girls' apron tops. These are all from La Lai village, Limu township, Luodian county. This is a super village to visit - lovely people and a very picturesque setting as well as very interesting coffins wedged into the cliff-overhang.

I have had a couple of comments from members via email - neither of whom have any positive ID but both have seen something similar on Marla Mallett's site including a current (more complicated) version http://www.marlamallett.com/e-4047.htm which Marla attributes to the Miao from Huang Ping.

I gather that there are several of these coverlets around in various forms of complexity. It has been said that the coverlet that I have posted does not really look like a minority piece and, in a way, that is my sense also.

Thanks for all the contributions - any others, especially a positive ID very welcome!

I just checked out the quilt on Marla Maillet's web site. This quilt is clearly Miao (I'm not guessing from where). It has the structure I normally associate with Miao blanket: applicated animals both real and imagined, meandering throughout the quilt.

Also, a note on sloppiness. There can be two major reasons for carelessness.

1. The person who made it may be a poor artisan. In this case the quilt must have taken months and months to complete.

OR

2. This textile was made by a skilled artisan in a rush, so corners were cut (excuse the metapher).

Sorry, but I have absolutely no idea where this quilt came from. For what its worth, my first impression was Dong or Yao. Some interesting Yao textiles are on the market now, and they vary far more than one would expect, in China, much as the Miao do as well.

In "BeiShan", a 2002 baby carrier book from Guizhou Peoples Publishing, pp.227-228 there are two Changshun County Buyi baby carriers distinctly similar to the blanket in Pamela's photo. Changshun is directly south of Guiyang and north of Luodian. That said the blanket in Pamela's photo is definitey Buyi, even if its a "suspect" blanket.

Here is a portion of a brand new Buyi blanket bought last year. The colors and geometry are similar to Pamela's example and also the piece on Marla's excellent website.

Steven

(Steven's original photo has been edited in line with forum photo protocol but with an added more close-up detail shot in the hope that not too much info is lost. It can be difficult to reduce photos in width and file size. I use Adobe Image Ready which is incorporated with later editions of Photoshop. This has the option to 'save to web'. I usually crop first to a max of 600 pix wide at a pixels/inch ratio of 1375 to keep detail before it is saved for the web in Image Ready where I fiddle with the file size to get it not much more than 60K. I automatically check all photos posted on the forum and resize if necessary. On this occasion I also had an email from Steven asking me if I would - which I have been more than happy to do.)

Thanks very much indeed for your Bouyi blanket post. It certainly - especially in the simpler square - looks very similar in technique to the one shown in my original post. I feel much more comfortable with the Bouyi attribution than Qing Miao as the applique and couching stitch in my Qing Miao photos are slightly different in technique whilst the stitchery in your Bouyi blanket looks more like the one I show in my blanket first posted.

If you happened to have a very close-up photo of the applique and couching that would be great..................sorry, I am always greedy!

Interesting that Changshun (babycarriers in the BeiShan book) is quite near Luodian. This would put them in the Qing Miao locality and the Qing Miao have been very much influenced by the Bouyi - and, as I said in an earlier post, I felt that I was in Bouyei rather than Miao villages.

Thank you very much indeed for sharing your blanket and the info re the BeiShan book.

Do you think that your Buyi blanket was made for use in a Buyi home or do you think it was made to be sold - possibly for tourists (including local tourists)? Do you think it was made in a home or in a workshop as more of a business?

Did you buy yours in a local Buyi market where it was being made by Buyi for Buyi?

We bought the blanket knowing it was a new piece, since I did not talk to the maker I can only speculate it was made to sell. The majority of what's available these days is new.
We bought it because it is aesthetically pleasing to us, and figured someone else would enjoy it too as a decorative piece should we decide to pass it along.

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